Six Experts Discuss the State of Anatomic Pathology Information Systems

The February Issue of CAP Today features publisher Bob McGonnagle and his roundtable discussion with five LIS software vendors and John Sinard, MD, PhD, or Yale School of Medicine. 

For those who may have missed this very interesting discussion, here’s a link for access. 

Doing more for less and with less: Turning to IT

A wide range of topics were discussed, including the future of cloud-based information systems and what healthcare organizations should consider in terms of security and data storage before potentially moving away from an on-premises server.

LigoLab CEO Suren Avunjian participated in the discussion. It’s his belief that it will take a considerable amount of time for the larger laboratories to fully shift toward the cloud because they are more comfortable with the data being close to them. For smaller organizations, a cloud-based server is often the more prudent choice because of the significant cost associated with building an in-house data center and an IT department to manage it. In the near term, Avunjian believes that LigoLab and other like-minded pathology software companies should continue to offer both options to their customer bases. 

The six industry experts were also asked to assess the overall health of pathology practices and molecular laboratories as they move past the high-volume COVID testing that was a part of every day during the pandemic. The panel noticed a rise in anatomic pathology testing volumes and sustained interest in molecular testing beyond COVID. Consolidation in the laboratory space was also mentioned, along with greater interest in revenue-sharing programs like TC/PC splits with the technical component and the professional component shared between two labs. 

Other topics included the shortage of pathologists and the desire for pathologists to have access to information systems built specifically for AP and AP sub-specialties. 

Avunjian was also asked to comment on application programming interfaces. He said there’s been a noticeable uptick in the past couple of years with prospects and current customers asking for open APIs and not just the reporting of results via HL7. He said this is a trend that will continue to grow and that companies like LigoLab need to model the reality of each testing discipline and offer LIS systems that can seamlessly connect to all of a lab’s departments.

Dr. Sinard followed by commenting on the training of pathologists and pathology informaticians, and that segued into a discussion about digital pathology and the new CPT codes associated with this workflow. 

McGonnagle closed the roundtable discussion by asking all six panelists if pathology departments would be in better or worse shape in three years. All six struck an optimistic tone, with Avunjian, in particular, suggesting that future pathology labs will find success by being able to differentiate in their respective marketplaces thanks to strong partnerships with pathology lab software providers that continue to push the envelope in terms of features and functionality available within modern LIS systems.

Interested in learning more about what modern LIS systems like LigoLab Operating Platform can offer? Then we invite you to check out the following links.

Not All LIS Systems Are Created Equally

Comparing LigoLab Operating Platform with Legacy Laboratory Information System Software

Digital Pathology: The Future is Here

How LigoLab LIS Supports Lab Report Customization and Client Preferences